Car bombing in downtown Baghdad kills 6 people

BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb struck Thursday in a bustling area in downtown Baghdad, killing at least six people and wounding 13, officials said.

The explosives-laden car was left in a parking lot in the Karrada neighborhood, near a commercial area where also some government offices are located, including courts and a hospital, a police officer said. Three civilians and three policemen were killed, he added.

A medical official confirmed the causality figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

Ambulances rushed to the scene, which was quickly sealed off by security forces, as black smoke billowed into the sky. A military helicopter hovered overhead as and shop owners cleaned shattered glass from their stores.

Since last year, Iraq has been seeing the worst level of violence since the nation emerged from Shiite-Sunni bloodletting in 2008. The U.N. says 8,868 people were killed in 2013, and more than 1,400 people were killed in January and February of this year.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, which came two days after a series of car bombings rocked the capital and killed at least 34 people — the bloodiest day in Iraq since April 28, when militant strikes on polling stations and other targets killed 46. An al-Qaida spin-off group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attacks.

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The latest attacks come nearly two weeks after Iraqis cast ballots in the country's first parliamentary election since the U.S. military withdrawal in 2011. No preliminary results have yet been released, deepening a sense of uncertainty in a country strained by a resurgence of violence.

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